E-Book Overview
This book is an introduction to the study of word-formation, that is, the ways in which new words are built on the bases of other words (e.g. happy-happy-ness), focusing on English. The book's didactic aim is to enable students with little or no prior linguistic knowledge to do their own practical analyses of complex words. Readers are familiarized with the necessary methodological tools to obtain and analyze relevant data and are shown how to relate their findings to theoretical problems and debates. The book is not written in the perspective of a particular theoretical framework and draws on insights from various research traditions, reflecting important methodological and theoretical developments in the field. It is a textbook directed towards university students of English at all levels. It can also serve as a source book for teachers and advanced students, and as an up-to-date reference concerning many word-formation processes in English.
E-Book Content
Word-formation in English by Ingo Plag Universität Siegen in press Cambridge University Press Series ‘Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics’ Draft version of September 27, 2002 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1. Basic concepts 1.1. What is a word? 4 4 1.2. Studying word-formation 12 1.3. Inflection and derivation 18 1.4. Summary 23 Further reading 23 Exercises 24 2. Studying complex words 2.1. Identifying morphemes 2.1.1. The morpheme as the minimal linguistic sign 25 25 25 2.1.2. Problems with the morpheme: the mapping of form and meaning 2.2. Allomorphy 33 2.3. Establishing word-formation rules 38